Ichikawa Danjūrō as Arajishi Otokonosuke and Matsumoto Kōshirō as Nikki Danjō, in a performance of Meiboku Sendai Hagi

This eye-catching pair of paintings of Kabuki actors is a most unusual work by Kitano Tsunetomi, who earned lasting renown for his meticulous depictions of modern Japanese women. It seems that that Tsunetomi did not base his depiction of these actors on a performance he had actually seen; rather, he created an imaginary pairing of two famous actors known for occasionally performing roles in a popular play titled The Disputed Succession of the Date Clan (Meiboku Sendai Hagi). That play was inspired by actual events of seventeenth-century political strife within the Date clan of Sendai. The two staring roles of the play are Arajishi Otokonosuke, represented here by Ichikawa Danjūrō on the right, and the arch villain of the story, Nikki Danjō, played by Matsumoto Kōshirō—as identified by the artist himself on the inscriptions brushed in his distinctive hand on the storage box for the work. The portrait on the left does in fact resemble Matsumoto Kōshirō VII (1870–1949, who held this stage name from November 1911 until his death. What most likely prompted Tsunetomi to create this work was the commemoration by Kabuki fans, in 1917, of the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Ichikawa Danjūrō (1838–1903), one of the most successful Kabuki actors of the Meiji period. The ninth actor to hold this prestigious hereditary name, Danjūrō was credited with helping invigorate and perpetuate the traditional form of theater during an age of modernization. The artist Tsunetomi was known to be a Kabuki fan himself, but no doubt he was commissioned by a patron of the theater to create an imaginary scene from a memorable play depicting two of the most famous actors who performed in these roles.

Born in Kanazawa, from an early age Tsunetomi trained as an engraver for newspaper printing. He moved to Osaka and became successful at newspaper illustration, while continuing to study painting. His early submissions to the government sponsored Bunten exhibitions of the early 1910s were highly sensual paintings of geisha and courtesans that revealed his earlier study of Western-style oil painting. In 1917, Tsunetomi became a member of the Japan Art Institute (Nihon Bijutsuin) and his renditions of women gradually changed into a more introspective, idealized style. As one of the first Nihonga painters from Osaka to achieve national recognition, he played a major role in energizing Osaka painting circles and became a mentor to many local artists.